After watching Shonen Ronin's video about the appreciation of the Shounen Aesthetic, listening to Treat You Better AMVs, and reading that Manga called 'Cherry Boy, That Girl', I learnt something good that I'd never really noticed before...
What does it mean to have 'purity' in a character and how does this relate to storytelling? How can you properly utilise a character properly to convey the themes you are trying to show in your story?
First off, let me tell you more about that Manga I read to give examples. You guys know how Yanderes in Anime are portrayed rather sexually media nowadays whether they are male or female in variant? Well this story is about a yandere guy who gets taught the errors of his ways by repeatedly getting iron-walled by his ex-girlfriend throughout the story, then the story naturally ends.
There are a lot of messy relationships and misunderstandings as high schoolers tends to have but not everything is played for comedic relief. You can find underneath all the layers of character growth and drama a story about how love and romanticism are two different concepts. Even though it DID had have many plot twists, a critical eye can see that the core of the story was untouched since the beginning of the Manga.
There are many who view character as either people or mouth pieces for propaganda. They end up planning out the whole story brick by brick and end up not writing anything in the end out of not knowing whether their characters are 'good' or not.
But no matter how conceptually great a story can be, there will always be people having a hard time putting it down on paper. That's why you must learn to keep your characters 'pure' in the way they are supposed to handle their emotional well-being.
No, that's not quite it either...
'Flat Characters' tend to garner a lot of hate despite their consistency, but only those who actually know others and themselves would realise that humans as individuals define ourselves by key moments in our lives. It is what forms our personality and the attitude we have. And writers should realise that a character's 'key moments' in their fiction's present tense also affects them.
The guy in 'Cherry Boy, That Girl' can be considered a 'pure character' not because he has good intentions all the time but because what he's about become more and more consistent as you read ahead in the story. There are a lot of ways one might misunderstand his 'Stalking for Love' actions as something strange for someone like him on the surface level, but it slowly becomes apparent that he isn't the protagonist of some romantic comedy.
He's an obsessed guy who is blinded by his feelings for his ex to the point that he doesn't even realise the contradictions in his actions and regularly deludes himself with conjectures that the heroine shares a bond with him no one else has.
I don't consider him the best Male Yandere because he's, well... a Yandere, but because you can see that the writer truly put emphasis on making his struggles sympathetic throughout the story. It wasn't just because of a darn bloody 'plan'!
Sticking to one's principles instead of bending to the whims of the majority is loved by a lot of readers of fiction. That's why, writers tend to make good use of this in all characters no matter if they are good or bad, with rarely anyone breaking the mould as no one likes a pushover who is constantly being thrown around by other characters.
Whether they are good or bad, readers can appreciate people who are steadfast in their beliefs and only change once fully coming to terms with the truths they can't bring themselves to look at.
These are the 'Flat Characters' everyone looks down on... They are the 'people' who drive the story. All until the ideals and principles they operate under are called into question personally.
Nobody cares if a stranger calls them something like a narcissist, but everyone would give a damn if someone close to them appealed to their feelings and got them to really open up their eyes.
That's why emotional moments in Webnovels are easier conveyed by writers who aren't religiously abiding by a complicated plan but are instead using vague plans to figure out how best to communicate their themes through character moments.
No first draft is perfect and it's perfectly fine to make alterations to a story after the fact rather than endlessly planning out character interactions all day. Just let your imagination flow and just keep in mind which character is the most likely to appeal to the flawed protagonist's feelings the most. Who you side with as the Author decides the themes.
There a lot of people who like 'grey morality' in their fiction even though they mostly like sitting down reading depressing stuff. It's to the point that people think being grey in morality means being a jerk than staying neutral in any given situation.
The best fiction only let their character grow not at the end of the story, but at least midway through the story, since someone who endlessly grows in their stories like Shigaraki Tomura in MyHeroAca must not have been much of a personality to begin with, as there is only so much they can grow.
And growth without any purpose, impact, or even effect on the narrative is stale, no matter how hard you justify it. How other characters and the world itself reacts to your characters is essential.
If you are looking down on a certain trait of your character, go all in on displaying how that bad trait affected other characters in the story. Keeping a consistent stance will make it all the more impactful after learning to overcome themselves.
You can't even consider having themes in your story if you aren't constantly subtly criticising or praising something in the narrative, as readers like focus more than plot twists of characters who grow too quickly for them to get attached to them.
It's to the point that you start to wonder why calling the protagonist a 'flat character' really holds up in Novelupdates reviews. You are more likely to hate a character who indecisively going back and forth between different principles for the sake of plot rather than someone who can be more easily definable like a real person. That's why it's best to think properly while actually writing your story.
What characters do you NEED to convey your themes and how will they showcase these themes through their actions. That is what must be thought of while actually writing a story.
Never forget consistency in character growth and never make them 'grow' too early if you are trying to be more than an amateur who listens to the criticisms of readers who know nothing of artistic vision. Drag it out until you are finally confident that they've seen the errors of their ways enough to compromise on those principles within them.
Keep their hearts 'pure' without too much indecision, but also know when to end the story arc. That's how you will properly convey the themes that you are trying to show the reader.
Thank you all for reading~